Judy Williamson on Good Morning Texas discussing Paper Girl’s World.
Judy Williamson is an award-winning journalist, travel writer, and photographer whose work carried readers around the world during the golden age of newspaper travel reporting.
Beginning her career at a small weekly newspaper in South Louisiana, Williamson quickly rose through the highly competitive ranks of American journalism. She later served as the chief travel writer for The Dallas Morning News and as the travel editor of the Houston Chronicle, reporting from destinations across five continents. Her work was syndicated through the Knight-Ridder and Hearst news services, appearing in more than 200 newspapers nationwide.
During those years, Williamson’s assignments took her from the African bush and the temples of Kathmandu to the salons of the Monte Carlo Casino and even aboard the Concorde. This was travel before smartphones, GPS, and digital photography, a time when a reporter’s tools were notebooks, Kodachrome slides, and curiosity.
Her stories and photographs have appeared in numerous books and magazines, including Fodor’s American Cities on a Budget, Debrett’s American Cities, and Vogue. Williamson is a two-time Dallas Press Club Katie Award winner and has also received honors from Women in Communications and the Society of American Travel Writers, where she served as vice chair of the Editors Council and as chair of the organization’s Central States chapter.
Her debut book, Paper Girl’s World, is a visually rich coffee-table memoir that chronicles those remarkable years of global reporting. The 396-page volume features more than 1,000 original photographs drawn from tens of thousands of slides, capturing a magical era when travel writing combined adventure, journalism, and cultural discovery.
Part memoir, part visual time capsule, Paper Girl’s World invites readers to experience the world as Williamson did, through the eyes of a young reporter chasing stories across continents with camera, notebook, and a sense of wonder.
Born in New Orleans, Williamson graduated from the University of Mississippi and now lives in Dallas, Texas, with her husband.
Judy Williamson writes and speaks about travel, storytelling, and the adventures behind Paper Girl’s World.
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Named a 2025 Coffee Table Book of the Year, Paper Girl’s World, Judy Williamson shares a lifetime of global reporting through more than 1,000 photographs and stories from five continents.
